Spirit of Life, hold us in our pain and comfort us in our grief. Our grief feels boundless; our rage eats at us. We feel pain for all the wild creatures of the Gulf and the wetlands....

Earth’s blood, product of ancient deaths, source and flowing stream for civilizations, protector of many human lives, still spurts but barely abated into Gulf waters, host to countless lives of every kind, geo-bio-hazard threatening all lives of every kind for many miles and for months or years t...

Dear Goddess, Mother, and Source Your womb is all of creation Your love is mother's milk Please grant us support during this transition Please help us move through this next stage Please carry us in arms of support, grace, and love So that we may bring new life to this ministry So that we may gro...

Spirit of Life and love known by many names and worshipped in a rainbow of ways Infinite Mystery, Spark of Ah-ha and Ahhh and Awe Conspiring energy of interdependent co-arising Be with us now. Surround us. Push us forward. Pull us together....

A Haitian prayer book, entitled God Is No Stranger, includes the following words: “Father, I have learned that one strong in calculation is called a ‘mathematician.’ You are the greatest mathematician because You can count all the people yet still see each one of us.” Those words find new...

‘Tis the Season . . . of advertisers run amok and ambitions amplified beyond belief . . . of Martha Stewart moments mixed with desert island dreams . . . when even the most dedicated holiday-hopper admits perfection isn’t possible and “good enough” is how the season ought to be. ‘Tis the...

Prayer - Wayne Arnason O God, whom we know as love, we gather here this morning as seekers and finders, creators and destroyers, givers and receivers of love....

We join together now in a time of meditation or prayer, spoken at first and then for a time in the peace that silence brings.

Blessed be the flower that triumphs at last Over the snows, over the centuries, over the heavy feet of cattle and of soldiers treading down the fragile places of the earth....

Once more the year's turned round. We've come full circle on this small planet, Spinning down the grooves of change, Another revolution completed around the sun. Another year older ... Another set of rings on the tree ... As seasons parade in endless procession The people's troubles and prayers...

Would you please join me in the spirit of prayer and meditation? Dear Gods and Goddesses, Spirit of Life & Love, Bless us on this beautiful southern California winter day as we celebrate and honor the darkness of the season as a time for us to reflect, look inward, and nourish and replenish our...

Please join me in the spirit of prayer followed by a full minute of meditative silence Gods and Goddesses of darkness and light, Spirit of life and love: We come together on this sacred night to awaken ourselves to the joy of Christmas To the miracles of life The birth of a baby The rise of the s...

Here in this space, we are gathered, called by our sense of urgency, or duty, or the longing for community, called to be together on this day...Here, in this space, we are gathered...called to hold ourselves accountable to our values...to remind ourselves of those hopes and dreams and possibiliti...

To be shared after the flowers have been distributed... Within our hands we hold the resurrection of the world. Transient and imperfect, these blossoms are still gifts of infinite value. Like ourselves. Too often we seek permanence and perfection. Resisting change, blind to our shortcomings, We...

Do you seek eternal life? Would you accept it if you knew it was already yours? None of us knows what the future may bring. None of us knows the hour of our passing. But this we may know— Eternal life is ours, here and now. Look within this moment. Its span of time may be the briefest of instants.

Holy Spirit of Life and Love, You who are our source and our ultimate destiny, Lead us this day on a crooked path. So often we are in so much of a hurry Taking the direct route to our goal, Not allowing ourselves to be distracted, Sometimes being too direct with one another in all that we seek to...

Let us enter into a time of meditation, contemplation, and prayer. Feel the earth beneath your feet as it supports you. Feel the love of this community as it surrounds and enfolds you. Feel your breath as it flows in and out of your body. Listen to your heartbeat. Listen to your heart......

Over our heads, the great wheel of stars shifts, the autumnal (or spring) equinox manifests itself, and for one precious instant darkness and light exist in balanced proportion to one another. Within our minds the great web of neurons shifts, new consciousness arises, and for one precious instant...

You Birds of the Air, Hawk, Sparrow, and laughing Jay You embody freedom itself, delight us with your song, astound us with feats of migration Grant us your perspective, for too often our horizon is limited and we are blind to the full results of our actions....

Let us enter into a time of meditation, contemplation, and prayer. Feel the earth beneath your feet as it supports you. Feel the love of this community as it surrounds and enfolds you. Feel your breath as it flows in and out of your body. Listen to your heartbeat. Listen to your heart....

Father, Mother God, here we are together—rich and poor; educated and not so well educated; gay and straight; democrats and republicans; some of us with light skin, some of us with darker; some of us walking, some of us unable to walk: none of us as whole as we would like to be—help us to know...

Let us join in the spirit of prayer and meditation. We are each different. Some of us are bigger and others are smaller. Some of us are taller and others are shorter. Our hair is different colors and our eyes are different shapes....

Goodness is a means, not an end. Look within. Who can stop the hunger for more than we deserve? Who can prevent a jealous thought from urging us to protect our hearts? Who can ward off all the uncertainties that disturb the mind before we decide to act?...

Let us turn inward now Feel the rhythm of the breath. In and out, In and out, Find the peace of just being with the flow of the breath. Letting go of yesterday and tomorrow. Feel the restorative power of the peace of this moment....

Chaplain (C): The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Patient (P): There is so much that I want. I want to be well. C: He makes me lie down in green pastures. P: I am tired of laying here. I wish I could get out of bed. C: He leads me beside still waters. P: I feel like I'm in a whirlpool....

In prayer, we call to mind the peacemakers.

The following meditation will begin and end with the sound of the mindfulness bell. breathing in i am aware of my pain. breathing out i am aware that i am not my pain. breathing in i am aware of my past. breathing out i am aware that i am not my past. breathing in i am aware of my anger....

Many of the past generation and many of today have found three abiding values in prayer: the quiet meditation on life, the reaching out toward the universal and the infinite, and the courageous facing of one's profoundest wishes....

Fill your heart like a vessel with the Christmas spirit. Take the time to let your vision clear and your concern deepen. Allow your heart to overflow with all the authentic gifts that this season has to offer....

I love to pray, to go deep down into the silence: To strip myself of all pride, selfishness, and coldness of heart; To peel off thought after thought, passion after passion, till I reach the genuine depths of all; To remember how short a time ago I was nothing,and in how short a time again I will...

In the presence of these flowers,These representatives of Creation's profound beauty:Diverse and Unique, but Related and Interdependent,These flowers which come to us as gifts from we know not whereAnd which we, in turn, choose to bring to our shared and common altarAs gifts to one anotherIn thei...

Welcome all you saints! Yes! You are saints, all of you are saints, for it is not by perfection that we are sainted, rather it is by our actions. It is not by perfection that we are sainted; rather it is by our presence. It is not by perfection that we are sainted; rather it is by our giving....

We pray for the peace not past understanding: The peace of children laughing and students quietly studying, Of young women dancing and men flirting beneath the stars. The peace not past understanding: Where no gunfire disrupts the night, Where girls can walk downtown and not be afraid, Where boys...

Each of us will be grateful this Thanksgiving in differing ways, Gathered in our separate families, Each with our own distinct recipes, customs and traditions; For some will have pies of mince, And others of pumpkin or apple; And some will dine early And some sit down late to the meal, Passing on...

There is a living web that runs through us To all the universe Linking us each with each and through all life On to the distant stars. Each knows a little corner of the world, and lives As if this were his all....

I wish for you a troubled heart at times As woes of world and friend come close beside And keep you sleepless. I wish for you the thrill of knowing Who you are, Where you stand, And why. Especially why....

Often I have felt that I must praise my world For what my eyes and ears have seen these many years, And what my heart has loved. And often I have tried to start my lines: "Dear earth," I say, And then I pause To look once more. Soon I am bemused And far away in wonder. So I never get beyond "Dear...

Let us pause, and breathe, and be in touch with the sacred presence that permeates all, including this room, now. Web of All... of life, death, and renewal: We open our hearts to those who suffer as a result of the wildfires.

Holy spirit, We feel you moving among us here. Bless us with your presence. For we are in need… …in need of strength and courage. Our road is filled with rocks, with boulders strewn, boulders so high we sometimes wonder whether we can climb them, We are in need… …in need of comfort and...

Spirit of life and love, In this season of beginning Some of us are hurried and harried. Some of us feel sorrowful and afraid. Some of us are not yet ready to step forward into the future. May we minister to one another with wisdom, Meeting our friends with open ears, open eyes, and open hearts....

We pray for the children, For the voiceless, for the innocent, for the vulnerable, for the least powerful among us, and those most in need of our protection....

It is worthwhile to live and fight courageously for sacred ideals.

In the name of Providence, which implants in the seed the future of the tree and in the hearts of men [and women] the longing for people living in [human] love; in the name of the highest....

Infinite Spirit of Life, we ask thy blessing on these, thy messengers of fellowship and love. May they remind us, amid diversities of knowledge and of gifts, to be one in desire and affection, and devotion to thy holy will. May they also remind us of the value of comradeship, of doing and sharing...

This prayer was originally spoken while lighting candles in the following way: Begin with only the Chalice light in the sanctuary (no artificial lights). Light the first candle from the Chalice, and read the first part of the prayer....

She guides us...

My friends, we have arrived: we are here, in this new year. We have crossed the boundary of time, into the next year, with all its resolutions and plans and schedules ahead of us. Let us pause, for just this moment, before we move boldly onward....

In the midst of a world marked by tragedy and beauty there must be those who bear witness against unnecessary destruction and who, with faith, rise and lead in freedom, with grace and power. There must be those who speak honestly and do not avoid seeing what must be seen of sorrow and outrage, or...

Each day I am newly reminded of my unworthiness—a dozen thoughts misspoken; another day when the good I do falls short of the good that I could do; myriad small interchanges; moments of sharing that strain to the breaking point my desire to be generous, helpful, and kind; months of careful work...

I spent some time this weekend with an old friend, a dentist. She's considering buying her own practice, but wonders if she could retain the current patients and attract new ones. She wonders if the office staff would like her, or befriend her too much, or resent her, or desert her; she wonders...